By Dave Andrusko

Part Two is an Action Alert about the attempt of Speaker Nancy Pelosi to ram the pro-abortion health care bill through the House. Part Three updates you on the situation in Ireland. Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com.  If you'd like, follow me at www.twitter.com/daveha

Before I begin a new week of Today's News & Views, a quick thank you. Thanks to all those who watched last Friday's episode of "Law & Order" and especially to those who wrote to me to share their amazement.

The NBC program is hardly known for treating the abortion issue in an even-handed manner. Friday's program--"Dignity"--allowed the pro-life position to be presented in full and through the mouths not only of self-identified pro-lifers but also through the agonizing reflections of members of the "Law & Order" cast.

To the best of my knowledge, NBC doesn't show full episodes after the fact online. If I'm wrong, please let me know! You can see a clip of Friday's program at www.nbc.com/Law_and_Order/video/clips/dignity/1169056. ("Dignity" is available at Itunes.com.)

If you can take a moment, write NBC to express your gratitude. You can do so at www.nbc.com/contact/general. In the middle you find the place where you designate the program--in this case "Law & Order"--about which you wish to comment.

Speaking of online resources, I would encourage you to take a few minutes to go to the website of Oklahomans for Life, specifically www.okforlife.org/resources/10-21-2009Alert.pdf. As you know both from TN&V and National Right to Life News, Oklahomans For Life has been among the most creative NRLC affiliates.

This has really stirred the ire of the pro-abortion set which always takes aim at any measure which increases the amount of information made available to women contemplating abortion or which makes it possible to understand why women have abortions in the first place.

This particular link details how the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights has filed suit against "The Statistical Reporting of Abortions Act" which was set to go into effective November 1. Oklahomans For Life explains how "Abortion Advocates, aided by several recent news accounts, continue to misrepresent a new Oklahoma law strengthening abortion reporting in the state."

For example, "It is not true, as alleged, that reports about individual women's abortions will be posted online, nor will reports about individual abortions contain personal identifying information," says Tony Lauinger, state chairman of Oklahomans for Life. "No name, no address, no hometown, no county of residence, no patient ID number." To say otherwise, he added, "is clearly false and misleads the public."

So why is information like this so important? "Abortion is the most under-regulated, under-investigated, and under-researched 'procedure' done on American women today, yet it is the most common and most potentially dangerous to their health and well-being," says Mary Spaudling Balch, NRLC Director of State Legislation. "If a state can get a handle on the reasons women have abortions, it can lead to better programs that will make it easier for women to have their children rather than resort to abortion."

It is most significant that the law requires that abortion complications be reported. While abortion advocates frequently refer to abortion as being "safe, legal, and rare," very little data exists regarding abortion complications.

Part Two
Part Three